DAWN - Editorial; October 05, 2007

Published October 5, 2007

An ad hoc approach

THE millers’ complaint that they are not receiving enough wheat from the government’s stocks does not augur well for the price of flour in the coming weeks. The spiralling price of flour has hit the consumers badly. The official ad hoc measures which have brought a pause in the artificial surge in wheat and flour prices are more in the nature of a fire fighting operation rather than any strategic move that would have a long lasting impact. The current prices have stabilised at a much higher level than the market prices prevailing a year ago. The price spiral can be traced to the perverse meaning given by the country’s policy makers to the theory of demand and supply by totally de-linking it from the cost of production and the volume of output. This has provided enough space to the unscrupulous elements for hoarding, speculation and manipulation of prices, contributing directly to market failures. The government has been asserting that prices are determined by the demand created by a growing economy. But it has failed to recognise the imperative of achieving a high growth with low inflation. Ironically, a record wheat harvest set the course for the current crisis when the federal government decided to export half a million tonnes of the grain.

The wheat price surge has also led to a blame game between the federal government and Punjab, which is by far the largest producer of this staple commodity. Islamabad first blamed the provincial government for not releasing enough stocks for the flour mills to meet the artificially created shortage and later for its failure to take action against the hoarders and speculators. The Punjab chief minister responded by accusing the federal government for failing to curb smuggling at the borders. By design or by default their combined governance failure helped the market manipulators make a windfall. So far, the stockists are holding on to their stocks without any fear of a crackdown though many have been officially named. Among the beneficiaries are powerful politicians. At least some of the major ones among the 950 flour mills — both in Punjab and NWFP — do not cater to the domestic market and their entire production is geared to exports to lucrative markets of Afghanistan and Central Asia. Then smuggling goes unchecked to countries where wheat is scarce and prices.

In the absence of a smooth supply chain, strategic reserves to stabilise prices of essential commodities and a proactive wheat policy, the crisis will recur. The government should also formulate policies that enable excess money in the market to find productive outlets — in manufacturing and exports — to curb speculative pursuits. Price stability is the end product of all economic activities and cannot be tackled by ad hoc measures but by right fiscal, monetary, production and distribution policies.

Abysmal maternal healthcare

WHEN a major government hospital in Pakistan’s largest city is forced to suspend gynaecological services on account of hazardous conditions in the labour room and the operation theatre, very little remains to be said about the general state of women’s reproductive healthcare in the country. Pointing to deficiencies such as poor lighting and leaking sewage in the operation theatre, doctors at Karachi’s Civil Hospital have quite understandably refused to attend to the gynaecological needs of patients, even turning away emergency delivery cases. Unfortunately, maternal healthcare has never been a priority with the government, and although UN statistics show the maternal mortality rate as 500 per 100,000 live births — the figures for remote and underdeveloped areas stand even higher — no findings of a comprehensive survey have been made available.

There are, of course, several factors responsible for poor maternal healthcare. The overall health structure is weak in the country and many medical outlets in rural areas or small towns lie in a state of disuse or are poorly stocked and under-staffed. Long distances to proper hospitals and conservative attitudes have added to the problems of reproductive healthcare. The result is that the majority of women have to rely on the services of traditional birth attendants, not many of whom have been trained to recognise complications or to refer difficult delivery cases to qualified medics. Many of these attendants are not even aware of the importance of basics like hygiene and the sterilisation of instruments used during childbirth. The result is that a number of women die of causes that could have either been successfully handled or were preventable altogether.

It will be some time before we see the results of the National Maternal and Child Health Policy, announced in 2005, or are able to assess how far it has taken us towards meeting the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality by three quarters by 2015. But we can be sure that efforts like increasing the number of lady health workers and training traditional birth attendants will not give the desired results unless there is a sea change in the general attitude towards women’s reproductive health, in fact towards their overall well-being. For the most part, contraceptive use is low and women are denied a say in the number of children they would like to have. This lack of a decision-making role is hardly surprising when one considers that from birth they are treated as inferior to male siblings and denied proper nutrition, healthcare or education as they grow up. Unless this anomaly is corrected and officialdom strives to move women up the human development ladder, any change for the better in the current morbidity figures is not likely to be drastic.

Against aerial firing

IT is reassuring to hear that the police in Peshawar have decided to launch a drive against aerial firing, now that Eid is round the corner. It is on the sighting of the moon that people go a little haywire and fire in the air. It is on this occasion — and other similar happy occasions — that people, including children, have lost their lives to stray bullets. For the police to recognise the dangers of aerial firing and get proactive is an initiative that should be appreciated. They have contacted union councillors, shopkeepers, NGOs, religious leaders and government functionaries to get them involved in an awareness campaign on the issue. The key to the drive’s success will lie in the implementation of the ban on aerial firing: will violators be punished for their actions? What came of the case of the young boy who died in Mandi Bahauddin last year when a wedding party fired in the air? Or the case of a young girl who also died when a wedding party fired in the air in Peshawar in August while her mother sustained serious injuries? There are scores of incidents to warn of the dangers of aerial firing. FIRs are registered, some times people are apprehended but a lax attitude towards such incidents results in their constant occurrences.

The police are threatening to lock people up during Eid if they are caught; they must follow through on that threat so that people realise that their actions have serious consequences. Only strict implementation of the law will yield results. During this awareness drive, it is important to make people realise that there are other safer ways to express joy or celebrate. Events like Basant have been cancelled because of the threats they posed to peoples’ lives. Healthy alternates can and must be found.

Significance of Ramazan

By Dr Fazlur Rahman


Friday feature

ALLAH is Rahman and Raheem. In Arabic usage, linguistic structure of Rahman suggests fullness, abundance, overflow, brimming over. Thus Rahman signifies One whose mercy knows no bounds, Who is over-brimming with compassion, kindness, love and deep concern.

Rahman is He whose Rahmat encompasses each and everyone without any discrimination, its spectrum is so wide, so comprehensive that no creature, human or otherwise, falls out of its sphere. Like Allah it is applied to God alone.

The connotation of Raheem is somewhat different. Though derived from the same root, ie., Rahm, its structure is suggestive of continuous, repeated, frequent occurrence. Thus Raheem denotes the Being Whose mercy and compassion is showered continuously, without break, incessantly, ad infinitum. Taken together both the attributes would mean that His mercy is boundless, infinite, indiscriminate, continuous and constant.

The Quran, we are told, is the manifestation, the outcome, the expression and the outpouring of the Divine attribute Rahman. “Ar-Rahman, He taught the Quran,” (Q:55: 1,2). His Rahmaniyat, His limitless mercy, His unbounded compassion, demanded that the humanity must not be left at the mercy of blind emotions and animal instincts which continuously raid upon his intellect and his faculty of discernment between right and wrong, thus relegating him to the status of a ‘developed beast’. Human beings were not created to lead the life of animals and beasts.

At last, human history came its full round and the Divine Mercy, the Rahmaniyat, demanded that as the time was ripe, an incorruptible everlasting final code of conduct, an unerring book of eternal guidance, a final criterion of virtue and vice, right and wrong, good and bad, an unequivocal and clear statement of Truth, be made available to humanity to enable it to navigate its way to the goal of eternal success here and in the hereafter.

“It was in the month of Ramazan that the Quran – the most sublime guidance for entire humanity ; clear, intelligent, convincing arguments, evidences and signs; criterion for distinguishing right from wrong, good from evil – was sent down,” (Baqarah 2:165). It is thus the most magnanimous manifestation of God’s mercy and compassion, Rahmaniyat, towards mankind that this invaluable gift was made available to it in the month of Ramazan.

This momentous event has bestowed a unique status upon this month and herein lays its real significance. Fasting during this month has been made compulsory for all, excepting for the time being only those who are unable to do so being sick or on journey, to enable them to attain purification of soul, heart, mind and body. “In consequence to this great Divine favour, whoever of you witnesses this month must spend it in fasting,” (Q:2:185). And let them who were temporarily excused “make up the number later,” (2:185), so that none may miss the spiritual benefits of this auspicious month. Fasting during this month, says Quran, has been prescribed “that you extol the glory of Allah for His providing you the Guidance and so that you may be grateful for that,” (Q:2:185).

It is for the first time that the Quran introduces itself in this Surah by its proper name al-Quran. Apart from suggesting a strong bond of relationship between the Quran and the month of Ramazan, it hints at something more. The word Quran literally means that which is read over and over again, which is recited very frequently. It signifies that this Code of Guidance is not an ordinary book to be gone through once and then kept aside. Relationship with the Quran has to be a life-long engagement.

The dual purpose of sending down the “Book” as evinced by the verse “this Book which we have sent down, full of Barakah, is to be perused with particular attention and followed in practical life by those who possess understanding,”(Q:38:29), is that man must consume his best intellectual capabilities to delve deep in the Quranic treasure trough and accordingly fashion his individual and collective life. This purpose cannot be materialised unless frequent visits to the Quran are ensured.

It must not, however, be misunderstood that simple intellectual exercise could in any way be the exclusively aneffective tool to a genuinely correct understanding of the Quran. This misconception has been removed by the Quran itself. It is said in Surah al-Waqi’ah “Verily it is the Quran, most venerated, preserved in a written document, hidden from the eyes, it would not be touched except by the most pure, the most cleanly.” The Quran does not allow itself to be physically touched by the ritually impure, the bodily filthy and unclean .

The much needed Divine Guidance was made available to humanity. The crucial problem, however, remained as how to attain that spiritual cleanliness, that purity of the inner self which would elevate man and enable him to ensure his access to the real Divine intention underlying the words of the Quran. The clue is supplied by the Quran itself. “O, ye who believe! Fasts, for a few fixed number of days, are prescribed upon you as they were prescribed upon those before you, that you may attain Taqwa.” These appointed days constitute, we are informed in the following third verse, the whole month of Ramazan. Fasting during the whole month of Ramazan is said to inculcate Taqwa in the believers.

Taqwa is that spiritual sublimity of the soul which when attained restrains the believer from indulging in any such activity which may cause Divine displeasure and thereby result in the loss of love and favour of the Most Compassionate One. The Ramazan exercise to attain Taqwa and consequently be blessed with Furqan so raises and purifies a believer spiritually, morally and intellectually as to replenish him with the needed equipment, the required capacity, to pierce the veil of the Quranic words and peep into the underlying Divine intentions, aims and objectives, so to say read the “mind of God.” The ultimate purpose of Fasting during the month of Ramazan is thus to enable a believer to have a really better, deeper understanding of the Divine Message.

A word of caution is needed here. Fasting during Ramazan, no doubt, has an intrinsic quality of inculcating Taqwa and under normal circumstances it may be reasonably expected to produce the desired result. What requires our attention is that while stating the Taqwa-producing property of Fasting the Quran uses the word La’allakum which denotes hope and fear at one and the same time instead of using the word Kay which carries the sense of certainty. Thus the Quran instead of saying outright that Fasting is certain to inculcate Taqwa, introduces an element of uncertainty and ambiguity by saying that it is expected to produce Taqwa, while there is also fear that it may fail to do so.

The Quran thus strongly suggests that there are some preconditions attached which must be fulfilled at all cost so that Taqwa may blossom into full bloom. These prerequisites have been explained at full length by the most authentic interpreter of the Quran, the Prophet himself, peace be upon him. In a nutshell, those observing Fasting have to shun and avoid all such mental and physical acts or omissions which have the propensity of nipping the Taqwa in the bud.

Cross-legged policies

Middle East Press : Khaleej Times

IT seems it is one step forward and two steps back for the moment in Pakistan’s troubled polity. After dragging the issue for years, General Musharraf finally positions himself to resign as army head — though with normally unacceptable conditions which the present state of affairs permits.

And to add to the confusion, the sitting prime minister promises amnesty to politicians against whom cases were constituted between 1985 and 1999 as a matter of ‘national reconciliation’.

Once again, indications are that the government has been able to come to some sort of … deal with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who is set to return to Pakistan on Oct 18…

Therefore, by keeping the country’s largest support-base party, Bhutto’s PPP from resigning, Musharraf has somewhat taken the sting out of the opposition reaction. However, that is not to say that he will all but waltz to the presidency for another half-decade.

In the desperation to retain control of things, it’s quite clear to see that General Musharraf has made quite a hash of some too. And even though the next set-up will be boasted as a democratic one, in truth Islamabad has let go of a rare opportunity of getting the democratic bandwagon back on track, and with a degree of momentum too. — (Oct 3)

Collective punishment

Middle East Press : Arab News

ISRAEL’S rejection of family unification files pertaining to residents of Gaza is one more example of the collective punishment meted out by the occupying power to the Palestinians…

The Israeli government’s decision to consider Gaza a hostile entity does not release Israel from its obligations as an occupying power. Despite its 2005 pullout, Israel retains the keys to all ports of entry as well as the right to mount military forays deep into Gaza. Since the beginning of this year alone, such operations have resulted in the deaths of 251 Palestinians.

If the Israeli strategy since the Hamas takeover has essentially been to put the squeeze on Gaza, it has become apparent that it is not achieving Tel Aviv’s desire to topple Hamas. But perhaps this is exactly what Israel wants; to solidify the wedge between the West Bank and Gaza and to keep Hamas isolated within its Gaza confines.

On the other hand, the imposition of collective punishment, rather than targeting Hamas, will only recruit more Palestinians to take part in the struggle against Israeli injustice.

Much will depend on how Hamas comports itself between now and the forthcoming summit meeting in Washington. For example, will it risk sabotaging the meeting in advance by triggering a confrontation in Gaza, or will it back down in the face of Israel’s tightening stranglehold? — (Oct 1)



© DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2007

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